., we've seen circuit city, the electronics store, borders, the bookstore go out of business. largely because of competition with amazon. >> reporter: based in seattle, amazon was started in the mid'90s to sell books online. and for years made no profit. but it soon became clear that founder jeff bezos and his notoriously secret company had bigger plans. they started expanding in the late 1990s into videos, music, games, electronics, kitchenware, clothing, shoes, jewelry. business services, information storage. amazon turned the corner to profitability in 2002 and today, amazon is a $100 billion global company. and though bezos declined our request for an interview, he recently told "fortune" magazine's andy serwer -- >> our goal is to become the most customer obsessed company. is there someone doing some element better than we? how do we improve? >> online shopping is still only 10% of total retail. >> reporter: meaning amazon in all likelihood is just getting started. ben stein told me recently he has never seen a company dominate a market quite the way amazon is right now.